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classclown, I agree that the D and R line is old, but chances are that christie just heard it for the first time. I also can't believe KS, or anyone else, would try to blame Clinton for the Iraq war, rather than Bush.

"If someone running for local office supports the obviously stupid and failed policy in Iraq, that casts serious doubt on their judgement. Would they be just as stupid in their decisions on a local level?"

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Not a very good indicator. The local government is very much against Iraq, though have demonstrated a capability of making stupid decisions.

Wouldn't this question be dependant on which candidate for which office? Someone's opinion on the subject won't make a bit of difference if they are running for state office, since no decision regarding military action is made at the state level. Mr. Nguyen seems to have the right idea.

The State Governor controls the Kansas National Guard, the State legislators also have impact on the rules and budget of the Kansas National Guard. Things like how many troops can be deployed at a given time etc. Given the large numbers of Guard units being deployed, State offices do have a large impact on the war.

It's not only Jim Ryun's support of Iraq that is causing me to vote for Nancy Boyda. It is not only the corruption associated with that War and Ryun's close connection with it is causing him to lose my vote.

All the no-bid contracts and all the money Ryun borrowed from his atheist communist Chinese buddies to piss away to Halliburton and the other crooked defense contractors is bad enough.

What makes me sick to my stomach is Ryun's own very direct corruption.

I can't forget those poor underage girls in the U.S. Marianas Islands who were allowed to be used for slave labor and prostitution in return for contributions to Jack Abramoff's criminal empire. Jack Abramoff took bribes from those involved in sex trade and slave labor activities and give those funds to Ryun and others in Congress to keep them from passing legislation that would put a stop to the practice. It was this sick system of payoffs by pedophiles and the slave labor industry that was used to purchase Ryun's home in Washington.

The Marianas Islands are not some third world country. They are a U.S. protectorate. The idea that Ryun is living in luxury in Washington on money made off of pedophiles who were using children in an American territory as sex slaves and for slave labor is sick. When the girls got pregnant, those who paid for some of the equity in Ryun's home forced the girls to have abortions.

To make matters worse, Ryun let that equally evil man, Cheney, come into our State last week and raise $200,000 so Ryun can continue to cover up his transgressions, using Cheney's money for horrible television ads where he lies about both himself and his opponent.

After running up the largest deficit and the largest National Debt in American history, Jim "Abramoff" Ryun claims to be a "fiscal conservative."

He claims to stand for family values, but raised his net worth by on the backs of poor underage girls who were kept as slaves in prostitution rings and in sweat shops.

It is time for change, not just because of the waste in tax dollars and human lives due to Ryun's decisions about Iraq, but also because of his support of physical and sexual abuse of young girls in the Marianas (including forced abortions).

Submitted by Bob Geiger on June 20, 2006 - 1:20pm.From our 'waiting for the other shoe to drop' file, we have news that Senate Republicans followed up their rejection of a bill last week to penalize corrupt companies like Halliburton, with a vote today against another measure that would have formed an oversight committee to investigate defense-contractor fraud.
With only 44 votes in favor, the second such bill -- also sponsored by Byron Dorgan (D-ND) -- went down in flames 52-44, with Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) the only GOP senator voting for the bill's passage.

S.Amdt. 4292 would have established ":a special committee of the Senate to investigate the awarding and carrying out of contracts to conduct activities in Afghanistan and Iraq and to fight the war on terrorism."

Senate Republicans last week shot down by a 55-43 vote, an amendment to strictly penalize contractors caught defrauding the government, with every single Republican senator voting to let corrupt defense contractors off the hook for cheating the troops and the American people.

"A lot of people are making a lot of money, spent by this Congress, in support of our soldiers who are at war, and we have some contractors who are not playing straight with the soldiers or the American people," said Dorgan on the Senate floor.

Dorgan and Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) had sent a letter to Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-VA) in May asking him to start an investigation into allegations of defense-contractor abuses in Iraq contracts.

"These matters fall clearly within your committee's jurisdiction, and they have a direct bearing on our troops' mission and safety in Iraq, as well as on the use of taxpayer dollars," said the Dorgan-Durbin letter to Warner. "In the alternative, we would hope that you would support the creation of a special committee of the Senate - modeled after the Truman Committee during World War II - to conduct oversight hearings on Iraq contracting."

Durbin talked more about it on the Senate floor on Friday.

"I don't understand why there isn't a sense of outrage in this Congress on a bipartisan basis, on both sides of the aisle, that we are not only being ripped off as taxpayers by these no-bid contracts but that we are shortchanging these men and women who are risking their lives while we stand in the comfort and safety of this Senate," said the Illinois Democrat. "I know Halliburton is a big political force in this town. I know in some quarters you are not supposed to question Halliburton. This is some sacred institution politically. I don't buy it. I count the soldiers that are putting their lives on the line to be much more sacred and much more valuable than any big, huge, no-bid corporation."

Halliburton has become synonymous with war profiteering, but there are lots of other greedy fingers in the pie. We name names on 10 of the worst.

The history of American war profiteering is rife with egregious examples of incompetence, fraud, tax evasion, embezzlement, bribery and misconduct. As war historian Stuart Brandes has suggested, each new war is infected with new forms of war profiteering. Iraq is no exception. From criminal mismanagement of Iraq's oil revenues to armed private security contractors operating with virtual impunity, this war has created opportunities for an appalling amount of corruption. What follows is a list of some of the worst Iraq war profiteers who have bilked American taxpayers and undermined the military's mission.

No. 1 and No. 2: CACI and Titan

In early 2005 CIA officials told the Washington Post that at least 50 percent of its estimated $40 billion budget for that year would go to private contractors, an astonishing figure that suggests that concerns raised about outsourcing intelligence have barely registered at the policymaking levels.

In 2004 the Orlando Sentinel reported on a case that illustrates what can go wrong: Titan employee Ahmed Fathy Mehalba, an Egyptian translator, was arrested for possessing classified information from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

Critics say that the abuses at Abu Ghraib are another example of how the lines can get blurred when contractors are involved in intelligence work. CACI provided a total of 36 interrogators in Iraq, including up to 10 at Abu Ghraib at any one time, according to the company. Although neither CACI, Titan or their employees have yet been charged with a crime, a leaked Army investigation implicated CACI employee Stephen Stefanowicz in the abuse of prisoners.

CACI and Titan's role at Abu Ghraib led the Center for Constitutional Rights to pursue companies and their employees in U.S. courts.

"We believe that CACI and Titan engaged in a conspiracy to torture and abuse detainees, and did so to make more money," says Susan Burke, an attorney hired by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), whose lawsuit against the companies is proceeding into discovery before the Federal Court for the District of Columbia.

The private suits seem to have already had some effect: In September 2005 CACI announced that it would no longer do interrogation work in Iraq.

Titan, on the other hand, has so far escaped any serious consequences for its problems (in early 2005, it pleaded guilty to three felony international bribery charges and agreed to pay a record $28.5 million Foreign Corrupt Practices Act penalty). The company's contract with the Army has been extended numerous times and is currently worth over $1 billion. Last year L-3 Communications bought Titan as part of its emergence as the largest corporate intelligence conglomerate in the world.

If someone running for local office supports the obviously stupid and failed policy in Iraq, that casts serious doubt on their judgement. Would they be just as stupid in their decisions on a local level?

Here in Canada it's not Iraq but Afghanistan where our Canadian fellows are dying every week. We have an election coming up. The vote for a new Liberal leader. And if I was a Liberal, I would vote for the candidate who was all for removing our troops from Afghanistan. Why? you may well ask. I believe that this is an unwinable war with the Taliban and the Iraqi insurgents. They will never give up. The US and Canada are caught in the cross fire in an everlasting war between the Sunni and the Shia Muslims. This war has been going on since the 680 C.E. and it will never end. I say just let the idiots duke it out between themselves. To hell with the oil. If you don't know what I am talking about just read up on the history of the animosity between the Sunni and the Shia for the last thousand years.
Have you ever heard of The Immortals? The standing army of Xerxes, the King of Persia. He had an army of 10,000 soldiers and it was always 10,000 because as soon as one fell another took his place. That is the way of the insurgents and the Taliban. Think about it. Read about it. Equip yourself with knowledge.

Gootsie, I agree. The Chiefs were not playing. But I have issue with the whole "long hair" thing. I agree you should not pick up your opponent by the hair, but I think full well you should be able to take him down that way. If a player is going to have hair sticking a foot out of the back of his helmet, he should expect it to be fair game...it's blocking the jersey!